blog...?

I never ever thought I would have a blog and I kind of never want to have one again after next June haha, but I figured since I'm doing something that's a bit out of the ordinary, it'll be a good resource. I apologize in advance for my lack of technological skills and to be honest I really have no idea what I'm doing right now. But whatever! That is beside the point.

As I'm sure a lot of you know by now, I decided to take a year off before starting college, much to my mom's dismay, in order to pursue missions. I originally decided this back in February after learning about an organization called YWAM. YWAM stands for Youth With a Mission, their tagline being "To know God and to make Him known." YWAM has bases all over the world and many different opportunities to serve and make God known. I first heard about it through my dear friend Joe who had recently completed a 6 month program in places ranging from Perth, Australia to Mexico City and Bali. I was awestruck by the stories he shared of how he radically experienced God firsthand and how it changed his life forever. I have always had a huge heart for mission-oriented stuff, so it made me really excited and I looked into it the next chance I got. It didn't take long for me to decide it was something I wanted to do. Fast forward a few months, and here I am now, still in Solana Beach, riding out this weird, in-between time, missing my friends while they're away, and eagerly anticipating what comes next.

This is pretty much what my journey is going to look like! After researching a lot of different bases all around the world, I decided on Townsville, Australia, which is located in Queensland.  My program starts on January 15 and I will be participating in something called a Discipleship Training School for three months. Participating in a DTS is sort of like going to school; we have class and everything, but the topics we'll be going over are things like 'Encountering God' and 'Seeing Life from God's Perspective.' The particular DTS I'm in is called the Not For Sale DTS. Not For Sale is an organization that combats modern day slavery and raises awareness of the problem that sadly is so prevalent, now more than ever. I read somewhere that last year, slave traders made an estimated $32 billion. That's more than Nike, Google, and Starbucks combined. Whew. That's something that's hard to wrap my head around. After completing my three month DTS, our group head out on a two and a half to three month outreach. I'm still unsure of our exact location, but it will most likely be somewhere in Southeast Asia or Indonesia. Likewise, I am also unsure of what exactly we will be doing while we're in those places, but I'm not worried. God is already lining up something for us.

I am just beyond excited for this next season in my life. I truly feel like God called me to this place and I believe He is going to do GREAT things in my life and in all the lives I'm working with. Woohoooo!! So yeah, I made this blog as a way to keep in touch and keep people informed of what is going on when I'm over there. How can you help? Pray, pray, PRAY!!!! That would be fantastic. Pray for everything that's going to go on and all the lives we will touch and for the other people who are going to be on my team, and most importantly for God's will to be done and for people to know Him. Yes! God is so good. Also, I'm still looking to raise about $1000 to finish covering the cost of my outreach, so if you want to support me financially as well, that's awesome. There is a PayPal link at the top of the page. But mostly prayer! Thank you to every person who is already supporting me, for all the kind and encouraging words, for the meaningful friendships and good times, I see God at work in each and every one of you! God bless, my friends. :)